


The Hunter's Bride

by Nelja-in-English (Nelja)



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Ambiguous/Open Ending, F/F, Shapeshifting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-24
Updated: 2018-07-24
Packaged: 2019-06-15 17:58:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 883
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15418470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nelja/pseuds/Nelja-in-English
Summary: Fairy tale AU. Daisy hunts monsters, and finds a pretty young girl lost in the forest.





	The Hunter's Bride

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Mr. Blackwood for the beta!
> 
> It all started when I was looking to see if Basira had an horror surname like all the other assistants. I found an author named Aamer Hussein who writes mainly literary short stories but has a few horror ones. One of them is called "The Hunter's Bride", and I was all "This is the title for the Daisy/Basira fairy tale AU". I took some plot points from the short story, some from a similar fairy tales, and added a somehow happy ending!
> 
> (Maybe other fairy tales AU for other ships, if someone is interested?)

Once upon a time, there was a village, surrounded by a deep forest full of monsters and demons. Sometimes, a villager would disappear, but the survivors wouldn’t try to get revenge. They knew that the monsters would only become more violent and cruel, as a punishment.

But one day, a hunter named Daisy came to the village and started to slaughter the monsters. Of course, the monsters wanted to kill her in revenge. But Daisy was cunning, strong and ruthless. And soon, almost no one was falling prey to the monsters again.

She lived with the villagers but was never one of them, always treated like a traveller. They knew that if they invited her into their houses, she would be part of the community, and the monsters would now takes revenge on them too. For the same reason, no young man proposed to her, and when it was known she had different tastes, no young woman came under her roof to cook her meals and share her bed.

One day, as Daisy was hunting in the forest, she met a pretty young woman, tired and shivering. She said her name was Basira. She had been travelling through the forest when all her companions had been assaulted and killed by a monster. Daisy led her to her house, so she could rest and her wounds could heal.

When Basira was healed, though, she didn’t keep travelling. Daisy had protected her, had surprised her, had caught her heart. Basira stayed and lived in the village as Daisy’s bride. She offered her care and sweet words, making a new tenderness spurt from Daisy’s withered heart.

Basira made no friends at the village. She was, after all, a stranger, and unlike Daisy she had no place here. She was always reading a book instead of joining a conversation, she sang all the wrong songs, and haughty rumors were growing where she walked. Time passed, and Daisy’s hunts were becoming worse and worse. No one had died yet, but the villagers were staring at her with concern, not for her, but for the protection that, maybe, she could no longer provide.

Daisy became angry and bitter. To find more monsters to kill, she dived always deeper into the forest. One time she saw the trail of a little golden spirit fox. It was a small one, it could probably not kill anyone. 

She followed it anyway, hunted it until she found it. The fox didn’t fight her and turned to flee. Daisy threw her knife, almost missed it. She found her knife on the ground with a small piece of the fox’s tail, black fur stained with blood.

When she came back home, no meal was ready. Basira was sick and in bed. Daisy nibbled on a bit of smoked meat before getting into bed. She didn’t sleep, but pretended to.

She was still pretending to sleep when Basira got up in silence. Her feet made no sound on the floor, but Daisy felt the air move even with the skin of her eyelids. She was a Hunter through and through.

She didn’t call for her, didn’t follow her straight after she left. But after a few minutes, she got up too and started to follow the trail. It was almost imperceptible. But Daisy knew the smell of her dress the shape of her toes.

She had thought she knew the smell of her blood too, but now it smelled like fox blood.

When Basira’s footprints turned into a fox track, Daisy still followed them, without surprise, without sadness even. She knew. Her heart was already broken, she just hadn’t noticed. She kept following the tracks.

She got to the bottom of a high waterfall, where lots of monsters had gathered. Hidden beneath deep thickets, she concentrated, listening to their voices despite the sound of falling water.

“Now that we know all her habits,” said one big monster, “it will be easy to ambush and kill her. Thank you, Basira.” And Daisy’s neck tensed with fury.

But the little fox got indignant, its fur standing on end. “Isn’t it enough that you know her travels in the woods, and can avoid her? She’s my wife and I love her. This way, I can protect her and protect you.”

“Don’t be stupid,” the monster said again. “She killed your companions. That’s why you’re doing this. And as soon as she learns what you are, she will kill you.”

It’s what Daisy had intended to do. But, either for love, either for anger against this monster’s opinion, her heart changed. She took her bow and aimed at the most dangerous-looking monster. 

It fell, and Daisy fired a new arrow, violence setting her heart alight, betrayal changing the shape of it. Lots of monsters died on this night. Daisy never came back to the village, and of course, Basira didn’t either. The villagers knew again the feeling of fearing for their lives each time they had to enter the forest.

Of course, it was easy to imagine Daisy just had succumbed to the sheer number of enemies. But some children, who barely escaped some forest demons, talked about a new monster. It was a formidable tiger woman, with Daisy’s black eyes. And with her, there was a little golden fox.


End file.
